Jack wondered what happened to Daniel. After all, he had never seen someone like Sephiroth before, so how could he know what he would do? It had been three days. Cloud merely remained silent for most of the trip, except when ordering to stop or for rest. Cid still smirked and joked, but it was bittersweet, not the same. Or was it? Jack couldn't tell if he changed or if he was like this before, only now Jack noticed because he knew what they were going through. Sam trotted along with Red XIII and Cait Sith, obviously having made good friends with them. Teal'c actually seemed to be getting along with Yuffie and occasionally Tifa and Aeris. Barrett found that he shared a common ground with Jack and seemed a lot more interested in him now. Vincent came up to Jack.

"Your friend is alive. I'm sure you are wondering..." he said.

"Yes, I am. How do you know?"

"I can sense life and where it has passed, especially human life. It is a sense that I usually keep dormant, but I find it useful when tracking people, particularly someone like Sephiroth. He leaves a very peculiar trace. But I track another living person with him, which must be your friend..." Vincent explained.

"Thanks," Jack said.

"I did not tell you to make you happy, I only though you might like to know..." Vincent smirked and drifted off. Jack had to smile at his curtness. It reminded him of someone else he knew...

Cloud had stopped the party. Up ahead, in the distance laid a mountain with the sea to either side.

"He has to take shelter there in order to keep moving over it. If we press through the night, we can trap him in the mountain. He's slowed because of your friend." Cloud started at a jog towards the mountain. Everyone followed.

"Reminds me of boot camp. Be glad you never had to go through that, Teal'c." Jack commented.

"No, Colonel O'Neill I never did. But I was trained since I was a child to become a Jaffa. So in essence, my life had been a 'boot camp'."

"Good point."

They started jogging as well behind the rest.

"There's one thing that doesn't sit well with me about this!" shouted Red XIII as they ran.

"What?" shouted back a breathless Sam.

"Sephiroth was on a specific trail when we were following him. But when you came, he suddenly attacked us out of the blue. Then he kidnaps one of you and changes course unexplainably. He is planning something new." Red XIII shouted.

They ran and ran and ran some more. Finally at about the break of day, they reached the foot of the mountain. It loomed above them, dark and red in the morning light.

"Be on your guard," breathed Cloud as he withdrew his large sword.

They began their ascent. The mountain maintained a pretty even slope upwards. Finally, in the distance, they saw a cave. They halted.

"This may be the chance we have to kill Sephiroth given our advantage. Be on your best." Cloud took a moment to look at the cave, took a breath, then set out for it. Right before they broke into the surface of the cave, Cloud motioned for Jack, Sam, Teal'c and Red XIII to take the right. Yuffie, Cait Sith, Vincent, and Cid took the left. Tifa, Aeris, Barrett, and him stayed center. Aeris whispered a prayer and then took her staff firmly and gazed ahead. There was a second of absolute silence, broken by Cloud starting the rush into the cave. His team followed up into the cave. Right as they broke the surface and rushed in, Sephiroth descended from the ceiling in a silver arc.

"There is no stopping now." Sephiroth said. Jack noticed briefly behind him Daniel, tied and gagged lying against a...a Stargate. Cloud let out a shout of fury and flung himself at Sephiroth. The dance of battle began again, with each member throwing themselves at Sephiroth again and again. Jack fell back and ran to Daniel to untie him. He had bruises and cuts on his face, but looked fine.

"You okay?" Jack asked.

"Yes! Look Jack, we have to stop him. He is trying to use the Stargate to get to our world and destroy it too! He keeps saying something about all worlds being corrupt and needing to start again. This planet obviously has two Stargates. He extracted the transmitter codes and address to home from me with some sort mind control things. I held out as long as I could, but he got them..."

"It's okay, your alive and that's what matters. Just try and stay alive okay? Can you use this?" Jack handed Daniel his gun. Daniel nodded. But before they could get up, Jack was flung to the side of the cave by Sephiroth who had managed to work his way over to them. But before he could do anything, a large red creature with horns plunged into Sephiroth, knocking him over.

"Go Ifrit!" shouted Yuffie. Fire was pouring from its mouth and hands. It shot fireball after fireball at Sephiroth who merely dodged them like flies. He spun forward and in a large arc, brought his sword through the stomach of Ifrit. It raged, then disappeared. Sephiroth turned and smiled back at the team. The rest happened in slow motion it seemed. He spun towards Daniel, still on the ground and began a lunge at his chest. Daniel had no time to react. He sat there not able to move. There was a shout and Aeris was falling in front of the blade. It entered and exited through her body with seemingly no resistance. There was a metallic shing as the blade pinned her to the ground. There was absolute silence except for the small sob of pain that was uttered from Aeris' mouth.